The Troubles of Relationships
by perksofmadi
Summary: James and Lily had never been close. But last year, that all changed. Lily might've even fallen a bit for James. And we all know James is head over heals for his Lily. But what happens when they fall into a bit of trouble with the fifth year, Tabitha? Can Lily really trust James?
1. Chapter 1

Authors note. Hello, I'm kind of new to writing fanfiction if you can't tell haha. Um, I know this first chapter is awful short, but the next one's will be much longer :) I hope you enjoy!

xoxo, Madi.

Lily sat on the stone steps in front of her house, impatiently tapping her foot. She had been waiting for James to arrive for over an hour; he was late. He had said they needed to talk. But Lily wasn't so sure she wanted to talk to the prat after what he put her through during the last school year at Hogwarts. It was the summer of her sixth, going on seventh, year at Hogwarts and she wanted to have fun, be careless (yes, Lily Evans, careless.). We did have good times together throughout the school year I suppose..., Lily thought to herself. She smiled at the ground and remembered their secret kisses in randomly chosen classrooms between classes, their late night walks under the invisibility cloak to the lake, all the times he made her laugh until she cried. Lily shook her head and thought to herself, I'll just wait a little while longer. I'm sure it's important.

*Beginning of Lily's sixth year at Hogwarts*

Lily walked down the long strip of carpet on the train, looking for a seat. She couldn't seem to find her best friends anywhere. She had just passed another compartment when she heard a man's voice call her name. She whirled around and saw Sirius Black staring her right in the eye. "Hello, Red! Miss me?" He said with a wink.

As much as she tried not to, Lily couldn't help but enjoy Sirius' company. He was such a laugh. She shook her head, laughing and said, "Of course. Have you seen Alice and Mary?" Sirius gestured towards his compartment and Lily looked inside. There, along with Mary and Alice, were three other boys. Lily recognized Remus first and ran into his arms. "REMUS! I missed you! Did you read tha-"

Someone interrupted her then, and she whirled around to hear James saying, "Woah there Evans, where's my hug?" Lily figured it was time to finally get over her hatred for James. So she walked to him and threw her arms around his neck, squeezing him till he finally hugged her back. When she went to pull away, James wouldn't let go. When she finally got out of his grasp, she looked up at his face and saw a big goofy grin. His eyes were all lovey dovey and he looked as happy as ever. Lily turned to Peter, the third boy in the compartment, and gave him a quick hug and said hello. Then she sat down right between Mary and James, the only seat left now that Sirius had sat down on Mary's other side.

James still had the goofy grin on his face as he looked up at Lily and said, "So Evans, how was your summer then?" Lily shrugged and looked out the window. She had to admit she had missed everyone an awful lot, even James. Although he could be a prat, she still missed his constant attempts to hit on her.

~~~James' POV~~~

I couldn't believe Lily had hugged me oh my god that was the best moment of my life she smelt like vanilla and flowers I just wanted to keep holding on forever and her hair was so soft and she just fit into my arms perfectly and I can't even this is so great am I dreaming oh my god. James took a few deep breaths to calm himself down and then looked down at Lily. We'd been on the train for about an hour now and she seemed to be getting a bit tired. James hesitantly put his arm around her and she snuggled her head down on his shoulder. James' big goofy grin reappeared and Lily laughed before whispering, "Good night, James."

James woke up when his head banged against the window. His head rested against Lily's, who still had her head on his shoulder, sound asleep, and he smiled to himself. He looked up at the others and saw them all smiling like mad men. "What?" Sirius laughed and said, "You've been talking about Evans in your sleep for the past two hours, mate." James blushed a deep red and turned his head to the window. He just hoped Lily hadn't heard any of it.

He felt something blow in his ear, and he raised his head to see Lily mumbling in her sleep. He lay his head back down to see if he could make anything out, but all he heard were the words 'elephant' and 'tangerine'. Hmmph, odd. James lifted his head off of Lily's and jumped in on the conversation with the others. They were discussing the Quidditch try outs already. James was bloody nervous, even though he made the team every year. They continued to chat about Hogwarts and many other things until they arrived at Hogwarts.

James gently shook Lily's shoulder until she opened her eyes a bit saying, "Mum it's only 6am let me sleep," James laughed and said, "I'm not your mum." Lily's face blushed red and she quickly removed herself from James' arm. She stood up and grabbed her suitcase before exiting the compartment behind Alice and Mary. James watched her walk away, sighing contently. He just knew this year would be good.


	2. Chapter 2

Lily sat in the Great Hall the next morning, already with a book in one hand and a piece of toast in the other. She was reading through some of her textbooks for the year, her eyes wondering over the pages, mind somewhere far away. Suddenly she heard a deep laugh and looked up, only to see James Potter. James continued laughing and said, "Flower, you're book's upside down." Lily flushed bright and mumbled something about, "don't call me Flower."

James shook his head and said, "OK, Flower." He winked at her and she flushed a brighter shade of red. Lily turned her book right-side up and was just about to get into the book when Sirius plopped down next to her on the bench. "Morning, Evans! Potter bothering you?" he said with a wink. James threw a bit of toast at Sirius. Lily only shook her head and sat her book down, knowing she wouldn't get anything done with these two buffoons around.

Shortly after James and Sirius arrived, the other Marauders, Peter and Remus, came along. Remus walked between the rows of students, his nose in one of his school books, while Peter jumped from table to table, stealing all the best foods. Shocker. Peter made his way down to Lily's seat and plopped his plump arse down on the bench. "Morning, Lily," Peter said quietly, his tiny, watery blue eyes staring up at her. Lily smiled and offered him some pumpkin juice. Remus sat down next to James, not bothering to look up from his book to say hi.

_These boys are awfully comfortable around me considering I hated their bloody guts last year, _Lily thought to herself. She laughed at all the times she had cursed them. Oh, how sweet Lily could be. But, it's not like they didn't deserve it. Then again, Lily had always been close with Remus, so she assumed that was why they sat where they did.

James ran a hand through his messy, raven hair and pushed his glasses up his nose, only to have them slide down again. "So, Evans, what's your first class?" Lily pulled out her schedule and said, "Oh, Potions. You?" James goofy smile spread across his face as he said, "Yes! I have that too! These prats have are all in Charms their first class, I thought I"d be alone." Lily smiled, would James want to be her partner..? Severus surely wouldn't like that. Well, maybe he wouldn't even care. Lately he had been a bit of a prat to her. He would never hang out with her in public anymore, too embarrassed she guessed.

Lily hopped up from the table and said, "Well, I'd better get to class by now, James, come with me?" James immediately bounded out of his seat and followed the lovely Lily, excited to spend the class with her.

~~~James POV~~~

James followed his lovely Lily down the corridor, watched her long hair swish back and forth across her back, flowing in fiery red ringlets. Lily turned around and asked, "Why're you walking all the way back there? Get up here!" James tried to walk slowly next to her, he was so much taller than her that a few of his steps were about seven of hers!

They reached Potions and James held the door open for Lily. James watched Lily's eyes catch on the prat of a boy, Snape, and he scowled. How he hated Severus Snape. James thought Lily deserved a better friend, AKA James. James watched Lily start to walk towards Snape, but then she turned around and shyly said, "Er, James, would you, uh, maybe want to be my partner?" James immediately shouted out yes, flushing red afterwards. "I mean, yeah, okay sure." Lily laughed and headed towards the front table.

"Lily. Lily what. What're you doing. Wrong way." James dragged her back to the farthest table from the Professor. Lily shrugged and sat down.

Throughout the lesson, James caught Snape sending him dirty looks about every five minutes. Jealous, much? Lily didn't seem to notice.

The Professor announced that they were going to be brewing Amortentia. Bit of a heavy brewing for so early in the year. Oh well, not like James hadn't brewed it before (which also resulted in quite a few burns on his face when he ignored the potion for a few minutes and it exploded in his face.). Lily got up to go get the ingredients and James followed. When they reached the cabinet, Snape came over to Lily. James couldn't hear their conversation. But Lily seemed a bit upset when they walked back to their table.

"Er, Lily, you alright?" Lily's face had gone a bit red and she quickly nodded her head. "Yes, I'm fine I'm fine."

James shrugged. "So, I was wondering. Would you maybe want to go on an adventure tonight after dinner?" Lily looked up and said, "What do you mean an adventure? James it's a _school_ night."

James laughed and shook his head. Wow, she needed to get out more. "Lily darling, you simply must come. It'll be fun!" Lily looked unsure. "Pleeeease?" James pulled a puppy dog face and started whining. Lily laughed and said, "Fine. But we aren't staying out too late." James smiled, knowing they'd be out very late.

*later that evening, Lily's POV*

James and Lily walked together to the Great Hall. Lily had spent most of the day with James, seeing as they had almost all of the same classes. Their schedules were almost exactly the same! Lily sat down on the bench next to Sirius, and James sat on her other side. Lily was shocked at how much she enjoyed James' company, she was even more shocked that he hadn't attempted to hit on her. She really liked him!

James leaned across Lily and whispered something into Sirius' ear. Sirius looked at Lily with a wicked grin and said, "You're in for a surprise tonight, Red!"

Lily was half worried, but her excitement took over. She wanted to have fun this year, she knew from her past years at Hogwarts that she did great, so she wasn't going to be completely boring. Lily turned to James and said, "What exactly is planned for tonight, Mr. Potter?" James also had a wicked grin. He put two fingers to his lips and zipped across them, as if zipping his mouth shut. _Suppose it's a secret then! _Lily thought.

Lily quickly finished her dinner, shoveling her food into her mouth as quickly as she could without looking weird. They were both so excited. When Lily was done, she turned to James and said, "Right, when do we go?" James laughed and said, "Patience m'dear. I suppose we could go now?" Lily nodded, slightly nervous, and followed James into the corridor. Lily followed him back to the Gryffindor Common Room, and he told her to wait on the sofa while he went to grab something.

James came down a few minutes later carrying a lovely, thin cloak. "What's that?" Lily asked. James smiled widely and threw it over himself. Lily's eyes grew big, James had disappeared!

Lily's mouth fell open and she said, "Where in the bloody hell did you get that?! I've only read about them! Is it real?!" James laughed under the cloak and threw a finger to her lips, gesturing for her to be quiet. Lily flushed.

"Well, are you ready?" Lily nodded and James threw the cloak over the two of them. James led Lily down the corridor until they reached a stair case, and after a flew flights, they reached a door that Lily had never seen before.

"James, what is this? Where are we?" James smiled and said, "This, Lily, is the Room of Requirement."


	3. Chapter 3

Lily's eyes were so wide James thought they might fall out. Her mouth was hanging open and she had a look of wonder and shock on her face. James chuckled softly and put a finger to her chin, shutting her mouth. James laughed and Lily flushed, turning to him and saying, "James, what is this? Where did this come from? I've never seen this before what did you do! Oh-" Lily was cut off when James took her into the the room.

It was a dimly lit room, reds and oranges and pinks painted on the walls, fading from one to another. There were fairy lights lining the room, running down the walls and twinkling beautifully in the dim room. There was a burgundy and red rug sitting in the middle of the fairly large room, with a short, small, round table in the cent of it. On either side of the table was a plush round cushion for two to sit at. On the table lay an arrangement of different foods, small cakes and treacle tarts. There was a steaming pot of tea along with it, and it all looked very welcoming. A soft music was playing from an unknown source, and Lily thought it sounded familiar. In the corner of the room, she found the source. Next to a large, plush red couch was a record player. It was the most beautiful song playing, Lily wondered what it was.

James led Lily over to the table in the center of the room and motioned for her to join him on one of the cushions. They sat across from each other on the floor, James grinning madly and Lily grinning right back. James reached over and poured two cups of tea, handing one to Lily. Lily watched him grab some treacle tart and make a nice plate of desserts and she followed, filling up her plate with the delicious delicacies .

James cleared his throat and said, "So. I've decided that, if we're going to be friends, we need to know more about each other, ya know?" Lily smiled and nodded in agreement.

"So, Flower, what's your favorite color."

"Green. Yours?"

"Red. What's your favorite animal?"

"Doe. You?"

"Stag. Favorite place?"

"Any where that has books."

"The Quidditch field here.

James continued to ask Lily simple questions for the next hour or so, each learning quite a bit about the other. James learned that Lily had one sister who hated her, her mother had passed away when she was young, she wanted to be a Healer someday, and that she was bloody rubbish at Transfiguration. Lily learned that James was an only child, his dream was to become a star Quidditch player some day (shocker), and that he absolutely loved this Muggle food ("ah what's it called, pizzer, pooza, uhhh..." "Pizza?" "Yes, that's it!").

Lily and James had been sitting in silence, comfortable silence, for the past few moments when she had an idea. "Oh I know what we could do, there's this old game I used to play when I was younger. Want to try it out?" James nodded and Lily began to explain the rules. "Okay so basically it's really simple, the goal of the game is to say a word that starts with the last letter of the word I say. For example; if I were to say spaghetti, you would have to say something that starts with an 'I' like, ice-cream! It has to be a food because that's the category we're playing under. Okay, got it?" James looked a bit confused but nodded.

"Pizza."

"Apples."

"Starfruit."

"Turkey."

"Yam."

"What the bloody hell is a yam? Marshmallow fluff."

This went on for a while, the two bickering back and forth as to what was classified as a food or not.

After a while, James and Lily ventured to the couch, lying back next to each other to stare at the ceiling, which looked as if it was transparent, the night sky visible on it. Lily was nice and full of food, tired from the long day. Eventually she began to drift off, her head falling onto James' shoulder.

She felt a brief kiss on her head and heard James murmur, "Goodnight, Lily Flower."

Lily awoke the next morning to a brief shaking of her shoulder. She jolted up and knocked her head against James', knocking him in the floor. "Oh hell, I'm sorry Ja- JAMES! Why're you here? Wait, where are we?"

James laughed and said, "It appears we fell asleep last night. But don't worry, we aren't late or anything, we woke up nice and early. Well, I did. You know you snore? Rather cute really. You kind of look like a kitten when you sleep." James smirked.

Lily flushed and looked around. How was she going to get back to her dormitory without being bombarded with questions? She sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "Well, we should probably go back." James nodded and the two left the room. Lily and James walked together back to the Gryffindor Common Room, Lily feeling quite a bit closer to James than before. _James really is a wonderful lad_, Lily thought. James walked her to the stairs to her dormitory and plucked up her hand, kissing it gently while murmuring against her skin, "It was with great pleasure that I was able to be the first thing you saw when you awoke. Maybe that should happen more often." He winked and jogged back up his stairs. Lily flushed and giggled madly. She walked up the stairs to her dormitory in a haze, wishing that night hadn't of had to end.

As soon as she hit the room, she was bombarded by questions, just as she knew she would be. Lily ignored them all and walked to the showers, going through her morning routine. By the time she was finished, all the other girls had headed down to breakfast. Lily walked down the dormitory stairs and saw James leaning against the wall waiting on her. His eyes scanned over her and he said, "Looking lovely as always, Evans. Care to accompany me to breakfast?" Lily saw the other Marauders watching, Sirius smirking at her. She nodded, flushed, and walked with him through the portrait hole.

James and Lily walked a little closer that day. Lily bumping into him whenever he made a joke. They were both glad they were over the hexes from Lily and constant pickup lines from James and could be friends.

As the two walked to the Great Hall, Lily heard snickers from the boys behind her. She turned around and glared at Sirius, whom was smirking, and flushed when he winked at her, as if they had a secret they shared. Lily wondered what was up. She pushed the thought away and turned back to James, looking up (literally looking up, the boy was about half a foot taller than her.) to James to find him goofily grinning down at her.

They five of them reached the Great Hall and sat together. James on Lily's left, Sirius on her right, the other two boys across from them. Sirius turned to Lily and said, "So, Evans, have a good night with my boy, Potter?" Lily flushed a deep red and responded, "Not as much fun as you two usually have in the late hours." Sirius flushed a deeper red but barked out a laugh. He could get used to having her around.

Over the course of the next few weeks, Lily became distant from her girl friends and became extremely close with the Marauders, James in particular. The Marauders now included her on (most) of their pranks, and always invited her to tag along on their late night adventures. Lily was becoming quite fond of the boys, maybe a little bit extra fond of James, although she'd never admit it. More and more people were talking about the two, and even Lily was starting to think she ought to give him a chance.

Lily was pondering whether or not James even had feelings for her anymore one day in the library when she was interrupted by, shocker, James himself. He had a shy grin on his face and he started, "Now, Evans, before you immediately shoot me down here, let me plead my case. I, James Potter, have matured. And I think it's time you give me a chance. We've become rather close over the past few weeks and I'm rather fond of you and I know you're rather fond of me, so, what do you say, care to be my date to Hogsmeade this weekend?"

Immediately, Lily said, "No! I mean yes!" It had become a habit of hers to say no to him. "I mean yes, of course. I'll go with you."

Lily thought James' eyes might pop out of his head. He didn't actually expect her to say yes! "I just, really? You mean it? Wow, Evans, you won't regret this, honestly, we're going to have a bloody amazing time!" James gave a quick wave and shot out of the library, going off to plan their day together. Lily looked down and fiddled with her quill, smiling to herself. She wasn't absolutely sure this was a good idea, but hey, he deserved a chance.

Today was the day. It was time for Lily and James to go on their date to Hogsmeade. James had said to meet him in the Common Room and they'd walk down together.

Lily rummaged through her trunk and pulled out a deep green sweater, one that matched her eyes, and pulled it over her head. She pulled on some nice, dark jeans and laced up her sneakers. She put a light coating of lipstick on and curled her hair. Nothing too fancy, nothing too casual. She wasn't exactly sure what he had in mind. She sprayed on some perfume, smelling like fresh lilies, and walked down to meet James.

When she got to the bottom of the stairs, she saw James leaning against a wall fidgeting with the collar of his shirt. He was wearing clean, dark jeans, sneakers and a light greenish button up shirt. He looked lovely. Lily shyly walked up and he looked up at her, grinning at her. "Wow, Lily, you look- wow."

Lily flushed and looked around. "Uh, shall we be going then?" James grinned wildly and offered his arm to her. She laughed and wrapped her arm around his, and the two walked out of the Common Room, both terrified and excited for their date.

* * *

**A/N: Bit of a boring chapter, just some cute stuff leading up to the good stuff! Haha, I hope you enjoy! Again, not the best chapter. I'll try to update more often, hopefully by the end of the next week. Please read and review! Next chapter will be up as soon as I get two or three more reviews c: So, review, share it with your friends, follow, favorite, just show me you're reading so I know to continue! Again, I hope you enjoy, thanks for reading!**

**xoxo,  
Perksofmadi**


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